i recently read on a drummerforum about a drummer who had a tv appearance with his band. it was a playback gig and all the gear he used there has been supplied by the tv station. the drums were covered with muting pads. for cymbals they gave him a set which consisted of a hihat, crash, and ride. each of them were two meinl byzance glued together to achieve a muted cymbal sound.

he further said that it seemed completely absurd to him to sacrifice these beautiful byzance cymbals for that reason. he actually said he would have loved to get the original ones and use a set of lower-line cymbals for muted-sounding playback cymbals.

i totally agree with him.

however, what he doesn't know is that the byzance cymbals we use for making playback cymbals are the ones which didn't pass our quality control. since byzance cymbals are entirely made by hand, some of them don't sound or look the way they are supposed to. we would melt them down and entirely recycle the bronze anyways. we never would use byzance cymbals which passed quality control and glue them together to make muted sounding tv cymbals.

thought i let you know what the deal is in case you happen to play such cymbals somewhere too.

- norbert

it's amazing how many appointments you can squeeze into 48hrs. that's how short my stay was in mexico city last week. after driving all over this immensely huge city and checking out three possible venues for our next years meinl drum festival, we found the one that's most likely gonna be it. once it's ultimately confirmed, i will announce the place and date here right away.

later on we had a long meeting with the lovely people from our mexican distributor gonher about a possible line-up and other festival details. i have to say we got more covered that i would have thought of before. i even managed to check out some of musicstores downtown and a few sights mexico city has to offer before jumping on the plane back to germany. a total of 22hrs flight time for a 48hrs visit to mexico city. it's been totally worth it and i am looking forward to working with gonher on this project. stay tuned for more news.

i would like to thank victor, fernando, jorge, and juan-luis for their hospitality throughout my stay.

- norbert

the 2011 meinl drum festival in mexico city is closing in on us. time already now to fly there and check out a couple of possible venues for our event highlight next year. this monday i will jump on a plane with nonstop service to mexico city. i am going to meet with our distributor fernando and victor who will show me several halls which come into consideration for the 2011 mdf. once venue and date are confirmed, i'll start working on the line-up.

needless to say, i am very excited to make that trip since i have never been there before. let's see what expects me there. i will report in detail once i am back in a few days.

as always i will post from the road on my facebook and twitter pages. stay tuned.

- norbert

Something that I've never been a fan of is meeting my heroes. Nine times out of 10 it turns out disappointing. It might not necessarily be the fault of the person I admire. They're human just like anyone else. Maybe they had a bad day. Maybe my expectations weren't realistic. Or maybe they're just an a%$hole. Either way, it's usually never what I want it to be...

So that's why one of the best experiences I've had here at Meinl as the Artist Relations Manager for the US and Canada has been the honor and privilege of working with one of our cymbal artists, Bill Stevenson.

A bit about Bill...and I have to tell you this so you see why he has been such a big influence on me musically...

For those of you that don't know, Bill rose to fame as the drummer for the Southern California punk rock legends Black Flag. Before Bill joined the band, they definitely fit into the more proto-typical mold of "punk rock." But all that changed when Bill came in. Here was a drummer who made "time" his own. His sense of placement with the beat was so off kilter and bizarre that it made Black Flag feel even dirtier and strange than they previously had. Black Flag's mastermind guitar player, song writer, and leader - Greg Ginn - had found a true musical ally in Bill.  Through albums such as My War, Slip It In, Loose Nut, and In My Head, Bill helped Black Flag cross into a realm of musicality that was completely their own. No one could sound like them. The album The Process of Weeding Out, an instrumental album featuring Bill, Greg, and bass player Kira, sans vocalist Henry Rollins, showed a musical trio that defied labels and conventions.

The famed music journalist and musicologist Robert Palmer once wrote of Black Flag in a review in the New York Times, ''The Process of Weeding Out,'' Black Flag's instrumental EP, is what jazz-rock could have become if the best of the musicians who first crossbred jazz improvising with rock's sonic fire power had followed their most creative impulses. In a sense, this Black Flag disk takes up where ground-breaking jazz-rock albums like John McLaughlin's ''Devotion'' and Tony Williams's ''Emergency'' left off in the early 70's.

Most of the jazz rock albums made since those two disks have concentrated on efficient ensemble virtuosity, with solos as exercises in ego gratification. Many jazz musicians seem to have forgotten that improvisation, the heart of jazz, is more than just noodling and display. In the best jazz, it tells a story, but now it is the punk rockers, rather than the jazz rockers, who most successfully create atmosphere and convey feelings and ideas in their improvisations. This is exactly the sort of thing Mr. Ginn is after on ''The Process of Weeding Out,'' and with the help of Kira and Mr. Stevenson he achieves it."

Enough said.

All the while he was in Black Flag, Bill also helped form and lead another Southern California musical icon, The Descendents. Bill and his best friend vocalist Milo Auckerman, wrote album after album of songs that had blazing, smart, surf-music inspired "punk" rock, that spoke to the humor (Enjoy) and heartbreak (Cameage) of every adolescent out there. I dare say that without The Descendents, bands like Blink 182 would never had existed.

After Milo left to pursue a career as a doctor of science, Bill and the rest of The Descendents picked up a new vocalist and carried on as ALL. Another decade of strong releases followed in the tradition of The Descendents, but with the musicians honing and refining their craft into a razor tight unit.

It goes without saying that Black Flag, The Descendents, and ALL had a HUGE impact on me.

From there, Bill made his way into the world of producing. Bill and ALL built The Blasting Room in Fort Collins, Colorado, where to this day Bill produces records that have gone gold in sales. While The Blasting Room has recorded bands of all genres, it's widely known to punk rock bands that getting to record at The Blasting Room and with the man behind it, Bill, is akin to a trip to Mecca.

All of this must be said to show the monumental impact that Bill has had on so many drummers out there, me included.

So it was with some dismay a couple of years ago when I learned that Bill was in bad health and was going through some serious issues. About all I can say about it is that it was very bad.

Fast forward to two days ago, and I get a call from Bill, sounding like a teenager again! He had conquered his ailments and is almost completely recovered. The Descendents are planning shows again and so is ALL. Bill's back at the helm at The Blasting Room and the world is as it should be.

I am writing this blog as a tribute to a guy who in one way, shape, or form had some indirect part in me sitting here at my desk at Meinl. Through his drumming and the bands that he was a part of, he helped me listen harder, he helped me care more for music in general. He played a part in my life's daily immersion in all things drumming and music. Whether it was behind a drum kit covering The Descendents song Coolidge with a band or being able to talk cymbal sounds with a Meinl Cymbal artist and use Bill's ride cymbal sound on Allroy Sez as a reference point for what the artist was looking for, Bill was involved in my progression in life. I realized that the other day while talking to him. So I was immensely glad to hear him sounding fit and happy.

Getting to meet Bill a couple of years ago when he came to Meinl, getting to have beers with him, getting to eat Skyline Chili with him, and getting positive interaction with him as a Meinl Cymbal artist has been one of the most quietly satisfying perks of my job that I ever could have asked for. I met one of my all time heroes and it was a near perfect experience!

One last thing...Bill just told me the other day that after playing live with, and recording with them, that his and and The Blasting Room engineers' favorite cymbals to work with, are the Meinl Mb10 series. Thought you should know that.   :-)

Cheers Bill.

 - Chris

i've been in london over the weekend attending the london drum show where we had a small exhibit booth. benny greb got invited too to perform at the show on our behalf.

a memorable scene occoured to me there. sometimes at those kind of events benny wants me to do his soundcheck so he can listen to the sound of his set outfront and make adjustments on the mixing board. so again this time he asked me to soundcheck. i sat down and started playing toms, snare, kick, etc. etc. you all know what i'm talking about. at the end then, of course, here comes the "and now the whole set" part.

as soon as benny said to play the whole set, the door opens and in comes no other than dave weckl himself, sitting down in the first row watching me "play the whole set". dave performed at the event too and he wanted to check out benny's show. so here i am playing the whole set and not trying to mess it all up. i almost shit my pants to say the least. i think i did pretty good though.

later that evening i ran into dave again at the hotel, and here's what he said to me there: "you sounded good man". that really made my day.

check out some of the fotos i took at the show, and thanks to all of you who came and had a good time with us in london.

- norbert